Description

This manuscript, assembled in Freising, Bavaria, at the behest of Bishop Abraham (died 994), is famous for three texts, the so-called Freising manuscripts (also Freising folia, fragments, or monuments). These are the first continuous texts in a Slavic language written in Latin script and the oldest documents in Slovene. They contain a confessional formula (folio 78 recto), a sermon on sin and repentance (folios 158 verso−161 recto), formulae for abjuration and confession, and a penitential prayer (folios 160 verso−161 recto). The second and most important literary text is thought to be a paraphrase of an Old Church Slavonic text. The Slavonic texts and the other parts of the manuscript written in Latin, which are both of religious and legal nature, were probably assembled to serve as a bishop's (pastoral or pontifical) handbook, useful in a missionary context. Since some of the legal documents contained in the codex refer to an exchange of lands in Carinthia, it seems plausible that the manuscript was written during Abraham's exile in the eastern Alps (974−83). The manuscript remained in Freising's cathedral library until 1803.